Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
c1897-1992, predominant 1930-1980 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
1.06 m of textual records (572 files) 17 photographs : b&w and col. ; 25.4 X 20.6 or smaller 3 drawings : b&w and hand col. ; 19.4 X 25 cm and 12.3 X 10.7 cm and 9.6 X 11.3 cm 17 plastic and metal lecture slides : col. ; 5 X 5 cm 10 audio reels : 18 cm and 7.5 cm and 8 cm + pamphlets and a label 1 plastic indicator disc : 9 X 8.5 cm
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
J. Allan Walters, psychiatrist, researcher, and soldier, was born in 1906 and died in 1986. He was the son of Charles Augustus Walters and Stella Grace Wagar, and attended Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, in 1925-1926, before attending Trinity College, Toronto. Dr. Walters was a recipient of the John H. Moss scholarship at the University of Toronto and earned a Bachelor’s degree in biological and medical sciences from that institution in 1930. He also was a recipient of other scholarships and medals during his education and subsequent professional practice. He received his Medical Diploma from the University of Toronto in 1933.
From 1932-1933, Dr. Walters was an undergraduate resident intern at the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital. Subsequently, from 1933-1935, he was a Junior Physician at the Ontario Hospital in Whitby, Ontario. Dr. Walters then moved back to Toronto to hold the post of Junior Intern at the Toronto General Hospital.
Dr. Walters continued his post-graduate training in London, England in the late 1930s. More specifically, from 1937-1938 he was situated at the London Hospital and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London. Subsequently, in 1938 and 1939, Dr. Walters was an Assistant Medical Officer at Maudsley Hospital and afterwards a Senior Medical Officer at Coventry & Warks Mental Hospital in Warwick, England.
Dr. Walters moved briefly back to Toronto for the period between 1940 and 1943 and was employed as a Fellow in Neurology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Toronto General Hospital. Joining the war effort in 1943, Dr. Walters became a Major in the Canadian Army and a Specialist in Neuropsychiatry at Basingstoke Neurological Hospital and #1 Neuropsychiatric Wing in England . He also spent some time northwest Europe in 1944.
After the war, Dr. Walters returned to live in Toronto and held a joint teaching/practicing position at the University of Toronto and Toronto General Hospital from 1945-1966. He was promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto in 1955 and to Head of Psychiatric Service at Toronto General Hospital in 1960. Dr. Walters resigned as Head of Psychiatric Service at the Toronto General Hospital in 1966, but continued to work there as a Senior Physician and as a Psychiatrist and Physician at the Wellesley branch of the hospital.
His subsequent appointments at these institutions included an appointment to the rank of Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine at the University of Toronto, as a Consultant in Psychiatry at the Toronto General Hospital, and as a Senior Psychiatrist and Physician at the Wellesley Hospital (1970-1973). From 1973 until 1978 Dr. Walters was a Special Lecturer in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine at the University of Toronto and an Honorary Consultant for the Department of Psychiatry at Toronto General Hospital. In 1978, Dr. Walters became a Consultant in Psychiatry and Medicine at Wellesley Hospital and he continued to treat patients at his hospital clinic until Nov. 1985.
Dr. Walters was also active in numerous professional associations including the Canadian Psychiatric Association, Ontario Psychiatric Association, Ontario Medical Association, and numerous others. He was a Charter Member or Life Fellow of many of these associations. His work as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Neurological Society during its early years in 1949-1956 helped to ensure its growth and survival as well as the success of the Canadian Neurological Congress. Dr. Walters was also an active member of the Lennox & Addington Historical Society and the United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada. In addition, he had a strong interest in horticulture and Canadian art.
Dr. Walters’s main research focuses were Parkinson’s disease (1940-1945) and fibrositis (1947-1950). These investigations later led to his exploration of the concept of psychogenic regional pain which he originated in 1959 and first described in a paper entitled “Psychogenic Regional Pain Alias Hysterical Pain” [Brain, Vol. 84, (1961): 1-18].
He became an honorary fellow of Trinity College in 1978 and was active with the Friends of the Library of Trinity College. He married twice, firstly, in 1936, Kathleen Jane Wark (died on 12 December 1977), and secondly, in 1980, Anne Hewitt Thompson, née Amys.
Custodial history
By the time of his death the fonds was kept by Dr. Walters at his home. They were donated to the Archives of Canadian Psychiatry and Mental Health Services by his widow in the three years 1987, 1990, and 1993. An accrual to the fonds was received in 1998.
Scope and content
Fonds consists of: patient case files; original and reprinted articles written by Dr. Walters; publications by other authors; notes for speeches and research; reports; minutes of meetings from the Canadian Neurological Society, the Ontario Medical Association and various other hospital and association committees; correspondence and memos; ephemera collected from various medical conferences such as menus, programs and napkins; self-analyses and a journal; personal income tax records; lecture slides; photographs; and audio-visual materials. The original three accessions for the fonds that were processed by the original archivist in 1997 are arranged in seven series: 1. Student essays and notes 2. Research and personal interest articles and speeches (a) 3. Basingstoke, England, Neurological and Plastic Surgery Hospital files (b) 4. Canadian Neurological Society files 5. Ontario Medical Association section on neurology and psychiatry files 6. Toronto General Hospital and Wellesley Hospital files 7. Education of medical students at Toronto General Hospital files The accrual to the fonds received in 1998 is arranged in nine series: 1. Research and personal interest articles and speeches (c) 2. Publications, reports, speeches, and lecture materials 3. Correspondence 4. Diaries 5. Patient case files (d) 6. Personal income tax records 7. Photographic records 8. Lecture slides 9. Audio-visual materials Some materials relate to the administration and delivery of psychiatric services at Toronto General Hospital and Wellesley Hospital from the 1960s to the 1970s. Dr. Walters’ papers also include writings on the history of the Toronto General Hospital and over 400 patient case files from the Neurological and Plastic Surgery Hospital in Basingstoke, England. Fonds reflects the various administrative, research, diagnostic, and personal activities of Dr. Walters, as well as the development of psychiatric diagnosis, particularly in regard to the mental health of soldiers and the effects of war-related stress. See also the first and second series of the 1998 accrual to this fonds (i.e., “Research and personal interest articles and speeches” and “Publications, reports, speeches, and lecture materials”) for similar and related materials. See also the fifth series of the 1998 accrual to this fonds (i.e., “Patient case files”) for similar and related materials. Please note that the materials from this series have been physically and intellectually integrated with the materials of the second series of the original accessions of this fonds. This is due to an administrative oversight in which two boxes of materials from the 1998 accrual were misplaced until partway through the re-processing of the fonds in 2005. All other materials from the 1998 accrual have been arranged physically and intellectually in separate series as described above. Also due to this administrative error, there is some overlap in materials between this series and the “Publications, reports, speeches, and lecture materials” series (1998 accrual, series number two). See also the “Basingstoke, England, Neurological and Plastic Surgery Hospital files” series from the original accessions for this fonds (series number three).
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
All files containing personal health information are restricted in accordance with the Personal Health Information Protection Act. For more detailed information on specific restrictions, please refer to the see series level descriptions. Application for access to restricted material can be made. Please consult the Archivist for information on access policies and procedures.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
File list available in hard copy, MS Word Document, and MS Access database formats.
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Title based on contents of fonds.
General note
Due to lack of documentation, it is unknown how the records of the original accession were received and subsequently organized by the original Archivist in 1997. The original file list created at that time has not survived. This accounts for the extraordinary amount of constructed file titles assigned by K. Timms in the new file list created in the summer of 2005.
General note
References: “Walters, J.A.” Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Archives. Biographical file. Aug. 2005.